Ex-officer sentenced for taking payoffs

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HARTFORD, Conn., May 11 (UPI) -- An ex-police officer was sentenced to 37months for taking payoffs to ensure a drug courier went undetected by law enforcement at a New York state airport.

Former Westchester County police officer Michael Brady, 36, took $20,000 in payoffs from drug dealers and had pleaded guilty to charges of extortion and receiving a bribe, the Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported.

Brady had been assigned to Westchester County Airport, through which a drug dealer regularly passed while transporting drugs between Florida and Connecticut, the Courant said.

"This defendant, while a sworn law enforcement officer, took cash from an individual he barely knew in exchange for aiding his passage through airport security," U.S. Attorney David B. Fein said. "This kind of illegal activity is a violation of his oath of office and endangers our national security."

Before U.S. District Judge Mark R. Kravitz sentenced Brady in Hartford, the former officer said the drug dealer had claimed he carried large sums of cash because he was a wholesale mulch dealer.

Brady said he agreed to take the money after learning his wife was involved in a lesbian love affair.

Federal authorities charged Brady was part of a drug ring that smuggled oxycodone from Florida to Connecticut, primarily for distribution in the Waterbury area, the Courant said.